We know that salvation from our sins does not come by keeping the law. As even the Old Testament states in Psalm 143:2 "No one living is righteous before you". And that was a psalm of King David who is declared a "man after" God's "own heart" in 1 Samuel 13:14 and confirmed in the New Testament at Acts 13:22. The New Testament concurs in Romans 3:20 it reads "..by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." So the law reveals that we have not kept the law. Now if we accept that this is the truth about us that we have broken God's commandments and sinned and realize we can't be made right by our selves then we may seek God's remedy which is by believing in Christ. The Old Testament declares in Isaiah 53:1 "Who has believed our report?" So Isaiah 53 starts off with belief. Not only that but in the Old Testament in Habakkuk 2:4 it reads "the just shall live by his faith" as is backed up in the New Testament at Romans 1:17. So we have laid down the necessity of faith and belief from the Old Testament and the New Testament. But faith in what?

Let us at this moment consider the report from Isaiah 53 in the Old Testament. I will quote it in its entirety here:

1Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth. 8He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul,[b]and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.

Clearly the report that is to be believed is the very report of how one would one day come and "justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities." Who gets "cut off from the land of the living". Now this was written well before the New Testament was written and much of the New Testament is a description of the one who fulfilled Isaiah 53 and the very answer to the question posed in Isaiah 53:8 above of "who will declare his generation?" The answer being the writers of the New Testament and Isaiah 53:1 is quoted once in the Gospel of John and once in Romans 10:16 in the New Testament. And as you read those the report of Jesus in the Gospels and throughout the New Testament you will find that Jesus fits the description in Isaiah 53 quite well.

So it is clear that one is made right before God by faith in the gospel as both the Old Testament and New Testament concur. But what about all those blessings for obedience and promises of rewards for obedience in the Old Testament and what about the law of God for believers today. Does it apply at all?

It is clear that the Old Testament and New Testament both teach that even though salvation doesn't come through keeping the law but by faith that the law still applies for blessings. And this is made clear in the New Testament as Paul quotes the Old Testament in Ephesians 6:1-3 and applies the Old Testament command and rewards for obedience to New Testament Christians. Let's quote Ephesians 6:1-3 which is a New Testament passage that quotes an Old Testament command.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

So Paul here is applying one of the 10 commandments from Exodus 20 that was given to Israel on Mount Sinai to children and connects the promise and actually emphasizes the promise as the first commandment with promise as an encouragement for children to obey their parents. So it appears that the 10 commandments still applies to New Testament Christians. These Christians are clearly not Jewish or Israelite (Ephesians 2:11) and clearly no living in the Jewish or Israelite territory (Ephesians 1:1). So the Old Testament still applies for believers today after Christ has come as much as it did for believers in Old Testament times who looked forward to the day that this Christ would come. But in neither time was it meant to be for salvation except to reveal the need of salvation but nor is it to be ignored after we have come to trust Christ alone for salvation.

Now what about the sacrifices and the temple. Jesus said in Matthew 24:2 "“Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” He was speaking of the temple that stood in the days of Jesus. The temple was the place where sacrifices were made to atone for the sins of the people. Isaiah 53 as we read above spoke of a time when somebody (who we now know to be Christ) would be the sacrifice. Now that Christ has come and fulfilled Isaiah 53 there is now no more need of the sacrifices that the temple was built for. The destruction of the temple that Jesus prophesied of occurred some 40 years after he prophesied it to be so. work on this sentenceThis gives further evidence that Jesus is indeed the one who fulfilled Isaiah 53 as the Lord has not provided the Old Testament place of sacrifice for sins has stood for some 2000 years now.

The only thing I take issue with is that I do not believe in this idea of confessing before a priest. I believe we can confess our sins before God through Christ and that God hears us wherever we are at. For those who disagree I think the best way to handle our disagreement is for both of us to get into His word and on that I believe we can agree on. Both Protestants and Catholics I believe agree with Christ that we both should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Matthew 16:12) as Jesus said in Matthew 15:6-9 which I will only quote in part: "Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition....And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men...".

But on another side check out this recent 40 days for Life blog titled Abortion center director QUITS!and this is a more recent director than Abby Johnson. For more on Abby Johnson who quit a Planned Parenthood in Texas see Abby Johnson.

Enough said. VVN is leaning Cain since Huckabee has dropped out. Newt Gingrich is hurting himself real bad with these comments made over the weekend.

"NEWT GINGRICH: Well, I agree that all of us have a responsibility to pay — help pay for health care. And, and I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond. . . .

DAVID GREGORY: But that is the individual mandate, is it not?

NEWT GINGRICH: It’s a variation on it."

Not even Obama when he was campaigning campaigned for any variation of an individual mandate. This is the issue before the Supreme Court that is currently bringing down ObamaCare. Unbelievable that Newt is siding with even a "variation" of "the individual mandate".

Decent track record but I am still for Huckabee. I like Gingrich better than Romney though. Cain is good but does he have a chance. So far VVN is still sticking with Huckabee as the best chance to beat Obama.

As many of you know, I am prayerfully considering an important decision about seeking the office of President in the 2012 election. I am asking for God's guidance now, and I humbly ask that you would join me in prayer as I seek to discern His will for my life.

When I look across America, I see a country looking for answers. The challenges facing our nation are monumental, and I see difficult days ahead. I am seeking God's will concerning the role He wants me to play in His plan for America.

Together, let's pray for God's mercy on America. Pray that He will heal our land. Pray that I will hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit as He leads my steps according to His will.

Thank you. May God bless you and keep you.

Yours truly,
Gov. Mike Huckabee

This is not an official Huckabee site however HuckPac has this to say about the site:

This is not one of Governor Huckabee's official websites nor does it have anything to do with Huck PAC. However, the Governor is overwhelmed and encouraged by the many people who pray for him as he prepares to make a decision about running for President.

Praise God!!!

President Reagan once said at a prayer breakfast in Dallas: "America needs God more than God needs America, If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under."

And to conclude with Reagan as he quotes Lincoln from the past in our nation's crisis of the Civil War in the 1800's and during the current economic crisis that Reagan faced in the 80's: "Abraham Lincoln once said, "I would be the most foolish person on this footstool earth if I believed for one moment that I could perform the duties assigned to me without the help of one who is wiser than all." I know that in the days to come and the years ahead there are going to be many times when there will only be one set of footprints in my life. If I did not believe that, I could not face the days ahead."-1981 National Day of Prayer Breakfast. Reagan was referring to that infamous poem about the footprints in the sand.

I start with part 2 of this video to show how loving modest women are being toward Godly men. My favorite line of this sermon and I believe many Christian men will relate:

"I heard a story of one of the ladies in our ministry who went shopping and really liked a shirt she was trying on. Then, she thought, "No, I can't do this to the guys." She has decided that serving the Lord and her brothers is more important.Glory to God for women like that."

As you watch below just a quick note on CJ Mahaney. I didn't know him from Adam when I first heard this. But he is the ex-pastor of the very church that Joshua Harris now pastors. You will notice some similarities in preaching. Joshua Harris wrote a well known book called "I kissed dating goodbye". For more see Sovereign Grace Ministries.

What a bummer (watch his announcement in below video). But Huckabee sought God on this as he pointed out on his show tonight and didn't believe this was God's will for his life. VVN is greatly disappointed but respects Huckabee's decision and rationale behind it. What a great witness to Christ it was though we social conservatives are disappointed. Let God's will be done and may we glory in Christ alone.

My kids are happy for they were sad that they wouldn't be able to hear the Huckabee Report if Huckabee ran for President. Well now they will still get to hear the Huckabee Report and so will I.

VVN will be paying attention to Huckabee's commentaries and possible endorsements and take it from there. VVN right now doesn't have a favorite. Leaning Cain for now but does he have a chance. I suppose the future debates will tell and now that Huckabee is truly out of it we will see where the social conservatives like myself go and will be paying close attention to Huckabee's wisdom on this.

VVN predicts that tomorrow's announcement that Huckabee will make on his show is that he will announce an exploratory committee and end the Huckabee show while he is running. I posted this earlier today just before the Neil Cavuto interview. It could be that VVN is biased in favor of Huckabee but just consider the three points below that was originally posted at Top 3 reasons why I believe Huckabee will announce tomorrow an exploratory committee

1) This will be announced on his Huckabee show program. What a let down to announce on his show that he is not running for Presidency. Is this good for ratings?

2) He has repeatedly and forcefully said he would not decide till June or July. To decide to run before then would be one thing but to decide not to run before then on his own show would be quite another. Besides I do not believe he will announce he is running but to set up an exploratory committee as the reason why he is going off air on the Huckabee show for the primaries. Notice the comments made by Wood Fraser, the executive producer of the Huckabee show “Governor Huckabee will announce tomorrow night on his program whether or not he intends to explore a presidential bid...”

3)But maybe the biggest reason why he will come out specifically this week is in part as a response to Romney's recent comments and stance on RomneyCare. Huckabee has repeatedly said that he could vote for Romney but at the same time was very concerned about RomneyCare and suggested that Romney apologize in some way about his support of more government control of health care in Massachusetts. But Romney did not. See HotAir.com's recent post at Romney’s speech on RomneyCare: I’m not sorry. So this could have been the spark that lit the fire for Huckabee on another Presidential run.

Below is interview just after posting the above post of Huckabe on the Cavuto show. Catch him tonight on Oreilly.

1) This will be announced on his Huckabee show program. What a let down to announce on his show that he is not running for Presidency. Is this good for ratings?

2) He has repeatedly and forcefully said he would not decide till June or July. To decide to run before then would be one thing but to decide not to run before then on his own show would be quite another. Besides I do not believe he will announce he is running but to set up an exploratory committee as the reason why he is going off air on the Huckabee show for the primaries. Notice the comments made by Wood Fraser, the executive producer of the Huckabee show “Governor Huckabee will announce tomorrow night on his program whether or not he intends to explore a presidential bid...”

3)But maybe the biggest reason why he will come out specifically this week is in part as a response to Romney's recent comments and stance on RomneyCare. Huckabee has repeatedly said that he could vote for Romney but at the same time was very concerned about RomneyCare and suggested that Romney apologize in some way about his support of more government control of health care in Massachusetts. But Romney did not. See HotAir.com's recent post at Romney’s speech on RomneyCare: I’m not sorry. So this could have been the spark that lit the fire for Huckabee on another Presidential run.

Now I could be wrong and I am biased toward Huckabee as you can tell by the label and tomorrow we will know more. Stay tuned...

Update: Huckabee was just interviewed on the Cavuto show and Neil believes tomorrow will be the last Huckabee show as so does VVN. The end of the interview concluded with Huckabee commenting on RomneyCare.

Ron Paul announced his bid for President recently. See Paul declares candidacy in 2012 GOP presidential primary. Ron Paul I don't believe has a chance at winning the Republican primary unless the votes become highly fragmented. After watching the first debate in South Carolina he may have had some cheers but clearly lost the social conservatives on his libertarian views. For more on that watch Alfonzo Rachel's comments on the latest GOP primary debate in South Carolina below.

So that gives us Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Ron Paul who are for sure running for the GOP nominee for President.

Huckabee on the other hand is set to make an announcement about his decision on Saturday on the Huckabee show. He has continued to make it clear that he will not decide until June or July but he may announce an exploratory committee and then have to end the Huckabee show as his important announcement.

I don't know why he would announce that he is not running earlier than he said he would announce as he has been so adamant about that so I am assuming he is set to announce an exploratory move. A post at the New York Times seems to indicate otherwise. For more on that see Huckabee to Announce Decision on Presidential Run Saturday at the New York Times.

Analysis: Congress will return to Washington Tuesday and begin legislative business at 2:00 pm. Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act (which seeks to amend the outer continental shelf lands) leads off with “Assessing Progress in Haiti Act” on deck soon after. Wednesday will focus on the elephant fin the room as Congress is set to take up H.R. 1231 (Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act). This bill will lift the Presidents ban on new offshore drilling and establish a domestic oil and natural gas production goal. Friday will conclude around 3:00 complete consideration of H.R. 754 (Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011). This allows Congress to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2011 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold a hearing on “The American Energy Initiative: the Jobs and Permitting Act of 2011”

The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology will hold a hearing on “Monetary Policy and the Debt Ceiling”

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a full committee markup on the “Fiscal 2012 Defense Authorization”

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing on “Medicare Physician Payment Overhaul”

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a hearing on “Balanced Budget Amendment Assessment”

Senate Cloakroom: May 8-14, 2011

Analysis: Continuing the latest trend of not accomplishing much of anything in the Senate, Senators will return to Washington on Monday to vote on a judicial nomination and continue working on the Small Business bill. Senator Reid filed cloture on the bill last week, but the cloture vote failed, largely because Senator Reid continued to block votes on Republican amendments. Unfortunately, the only votes that passed in the Senate last week were a cloture vote and a final passage vote on a district court nominee, John “Jack” McConnell, who spent 14 years as the director of Planned Parenthood in his home state of Rhode Island and is a political activist for issues important to the far left. It is incredibly unfortunate that his nomination was approved by the Senate.

Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 to the moon was not allowed to quote from the Scriptures so he did this off air due to a lawsuit by atheist activist Madalyn O'Hair over the Apollo 8 reading of part of Genesis from Apollo 8's mission. For more on that see Wikipedia here for more on that. Buzz apparently was a FreeMason but none the less providentially the first liquid poured on the moon was the symbol of the blood of Christ. Below are two videos concerning the communion on the moon.

Here is the victory speech. For the debate before the election between the 4 major parties to get a feel for what this campaign was about which is quite similar to what 2012 will be about in the US see CSPAN here.